[Define] Your Business Value Proposition - (4 min read)

In my last two blogs we talked about Why You’re Really in Business, and How to Identify Your Ideal Customer.

In this blog we’re going to take it to the third critical question:

Why should they buy from you?

Businesses everywhere, and in every industry, are constantly trying to figure out how to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Ask yourself these two questions:

- Why would a customer want to purchase your good or service over that of a competitor?

- How do you differentiate your good or service from the competition?

The answer to this is knowing what is called your:

Unique Value Proposition

I’ve said this in my last two blogs and I’m going to say it again:

 “You’re selling your product or service because you’re solving a problem, or problems, for your customers”.

But likely, other businesses are trying to solve their problem(s) too.

Your differentiation, or unique value proposition, is your secret ingredient. It's something that's distinctive to your business that offers a definitive, tangible benefit to your customer.

Your Unique Value Proposition is something that only you can provide, or no one else can do it as well, or they can’t do it at your price.

Some differentiators are easy to figure out while others are harder to come by.

Maybe you're the only dentist with a kid’s play area on the premises. All other things being equal, that’s a differentiator.

But maybe you’re a business that doesn’t have such an easily defined advantage. So how can you create a differentiator for your business?

Let’s look at a few ways, but there are many others:

- Look at your competition. What do they do that you can’t? What can you do that they can’t do, or do as well? Maybe your location is more convenient to customers – use whatever differentiator you can establish.

- Read your competitors’ social media reviews. Skip the 5-Star reviews and focus on the 3 and 4-Star reviews. When you see a comment that goes something like, “I would have given them a higher ranking if”, everything after the word “if” is your golden nugget. Deliver on that and you will be doing something your competition isn’t.

- Offer something to address common customer concerns and frustrations. For example, guarantee that your service delivery technician will show up within 15 minutes of the scheduled time or you’ll provide the first hour of work free.

- Never make a claim you can't deliver on. Be sure you can do what you promise or your differentiator will be useless, your reputation will suffer, as will your business. Trust is important!

- Build great customer relationships. The #1 way to differentiate yourself is to build great customer relationships. Move from a transactional mindset to a relationship mindset.

Why????

The simple truth is that….

Buyers and sellers with the best relationships will do the most business together.

Here are some questions you need to answer to help you Define Your Unique Business Value Proposition:

- Product/Service Description and problem you’re solving:

- What are you not going to do?

- What will be unique about your offering?

- Where is the proof you can deliver on the promise?

- What is your pricing strategy?

Once you've established your differentiator(s), reduce it or them into a few words – this is your elevator pitch!

Communicate it at every opportunity.

Use it in your ads, letterhead, marketing collateral, your website, signage, sales calls, and everywhere.

Your differentiators should roll right off of your tongue.

If you don’t know why customers should buy from you, they won’t either!

And make sure you deliver on it!

Ultimately, you need to help your customers answer the following question:

Why my product or service?

We can help you with this!

For more information about how The Cobalt Group can help you define your unique business value proposition, or any business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

How to Identify Your Ideal Customer Persona

In my last blog we talked about the first question you must answer to help keep you from struggling to market your business, or even get it off the ground:

What problem are you solving?

As I said in my last blog:

“You’re selling your product or service because you’re solving a problem, or problems, for your customers”.

Once again, I want you to read that last sentence!

Knowing that answer sets you up to answer the next important question:

Who Is Your Ideal Customer?

Who exactly are your customers? Whose problem(s) are you solving?

And it doesn’t matter what you sell, your target isn’t ‘everyone’. Not everyone needs what you sell, nor can you reach everyone that needs it.

You’re going to invest a lot of time and money getting the word out about your good or service, so your marketing plan needs to be specific.

You have to be more specific about whom you’re marketing so that you’re ROI on your advertising dollars is higher.

You need to know Your Ideal Customer Persona.

A customer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer, or customer set. It’s the segment of the market you’re trying to reach.

To do this you need to do some basic market research. And you don’t need to be a giant corporation to do this. There is information readily available to you right in front of you.

Look at your customer database or sales records. Interview customers when they are in the store. Send out surveys. There are many other ways that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Use website forms and social media platforms to capture important customer information.

Quora.com – see the most common questions for your niche.

Facebook Groups – review profiles of group members.

Online Marketplaces & Review Sites such as Amazon, Yelp, Udemy, AppStore etc.

Google Analytics – review demographic &  interest reports.

Facebook Analytics – review demographic reports.

YouTube Analytics – review demographic reports.

This research will give you real data about your prospective and existing customers, and the problem(s) you’re solving for them. This is the person for whom you’re creating your content, products, or service.

Your ideal customer persona is not a real person but an aggregate of your ideal customers’ traits. Not everyone will have the exact set of traits you list, but they will fall in there somewhere.

Knowing your ideal customer persona will allow you to personalize and/or target your marketing for different segments of your audience. This means you may have multiple customer personas.

You’ll need to discover:

- What problem(s) your customers are trying to solve

- What their demographics are

- What problems you can help solve

- And where they’re going now to get help

By knowing these things about your customers, you won’t be sending the same lead nurturing emails or other marketing campaigns to everyone in your database. You can segment by customer persona and tailor your messaging accordingly.

Developing a customer persona results in stronger and more cost effective marketing. It allows you to convey a more tailored message, minimize advertising waste, and even discover objections holding back customers.

Keep in mind, remember your buyer persona is a theory. Test this theory with the feedback and data you’ll collect about your audience as you grow.

You can now get the right message, to the right people, at the right time!

It starts by spending a little time identifying Who Your Ideal Customer Persona is.

We can help!

For more information about how The Cobalt Group can help you identify your ideal customer persona, or any business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Why You’re Really In Business

If you don’t have a clear answer to the following question, you may struggle to market your business, or even get it off the ground:

What problem are you solving?

You’re selling your product or service because you’re solving a problem, or problems, for your customers.

Read that last sentence again!

This is a fundamental mindset shift that must occur. And before you hang your shingle over your door and start trying to bring customers through the door,

Know the problem you’re solving!

You may make the greatest widget in the world but if your widget doesn’t solve a problem for someone, then you’ve made a great widget with no market to sell it.

Make sure you understand exactly what their problem is, or what issue they’re trying to resolve.

Not only do you have to know what the problem is, but you must understand how it impacts your customer.

You’re going to invest a lot of time and money getting the word out about your good or service, so your marketing plan needs to be specific.

Knowing the problem you’re solving is the first step. From there you can narrow down your efforts to those people whose problem(s) you’re actually able to solve?

And it doesn’t really matter what you sell, your target isn’t ‘everyone’.

So, don’t forget Why You’re Really in Business.

For more information about how The Cobalt Group can help you with any business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

10 Ways to Differentiate Your Business

Why would a customer want to purchase your good or service over that of a competitor? How do you set yourself apart from the competition?

Businesses everywhere are trying to figure out how to differentiate themselves from their competitors. 

This is sometimes called your Unique Value Proposition (UVP). But for our purposes in this discussion I will use the term Differentiation.

Product or service differentiation is a marketing process that showcases the differences between offerings by various businesses. 

Differentiation is making a product or service more attractive by contrasting their unique qualities with the competition.

This is done all of the time by some of the most successful businesses in the world. They have made their name by articulating their unique capabilities, and delivering on them. 

Perhaps in your industry, when others are scaling back their products/services you might see a benefit in expanding yours. 

There are plenty of examples of successful companies and how they differentiated their offering to stand out from the crowd. After all, you want to lure prospective customers in your door and away from competitors. 

As I’ve said before, you want your unfair share of the market.

Another reason for differentiating yourself is to help you avoid competing on price alone. 

Think of your differentiation as your secret ingredient. It's something that's unique to your business. And it offers a definitive, tangible benefit to your customer.

Some differentiators are easy to figure out, while others are harder to come by. Ultimately, the question becomes – Why me?

Let’s take a look at some ideas for helping you answer that question.

1. Know the problem you’re solving. You are really in business selling your product or service because you are solving a problem for your customers. 

Make sure that the problem you’re trying to solve is real. Make sure you understand exactly what that problem is. 

List the main issues your potential customers have and create a differentiator to address them.

2. Know your ideal buyer persona. Having a great offering is a good thing. But if you’re not marketing it to the people that need your product you’re wasting marketing dollars. You want to market to the right people with the right message at the right time.

3. Take a look at your competition. What do they offer that you don’t? Is that offering significant? What do you offer that they don’t? Is their location and advantage for them, or is yours? What is bringing customers to them?

4. Define your unique value proposition. Maybe you're the only dentist with a kid’s play area on the premises. Or maybe you’re a business consultant has experience working with and for Fortune 100 companies. 

What is it that you do that others cannot do, or cannot do as well as you? These are examples of differentiators that might set you apart.

5. Your differentiator(s) may change. Another competitor may match one of your differentiators, or may exceed your capability. You may develop a new one. Don't be afraid to change the message as your business evolves. 

Your customers evolve, you need to be agile as well.

6. Offer a guarantee. Offer something to address common customer frustrations. For example, guarantee that your service delivery technician will show up within 15 minutes of the scheduled time or provide the first hour of work free. 

What you’re trying to do is build trust with your customers and give them a no-risk opportunity to do business with you.

7. Be specific. Be as clear as you can on what it is that you offer that others don’t. Put it out there in big, bold colors and use it as a differentiator.

8. Never make a claim you can't deliver on.  Be sure you can deliver what you promise or your differentiator(s) will be useless. Then, your reputation will suffer, as will your business.

9. Make sure your employees know and deliver on your differentiator(s). It does no good to advertise a unique good or service if your employees can’t follow through for you. Make sure they understand your differentiator(s) and deliver on them consistently.

10. Build great customer relationships. Every step in the buyer/seller process is a chance to build and strengthen a great customer relationship. Work on it all the time and make sure your employees do the same. 

Remember, buyers and sellers with the best relationships will do the most business together.

So, then what? Once you've established your differentiator(s), reduce it into a few words and then communicate it at every touch point. This is your elevator pitch! 

Use it in your ads, letterhead, marketing collateral, your website, signage, sales calls, and beyond. Your differentiators should roll right off of your tongue.

Think of it this way: what makes you choose one grocery store, dentist or moving company over another? Chances are it's their success in defining their differentiator and getting that message to the right marketplace. That’s what you want to do, too.

This should be a good start to get you thinking about how to make your company stand out from the competition. Above all, when defining your differentiators, be brutally honest in your evaluation. I guarantee that your customers will – either directly to you or by taking their business elsewhere.

For more information about creating your Unique Value Proposition, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you with any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Why Hire a Business Consultant?

Typically, most small to mid-sized business owners find themselves involved in every aspect of their business, from running the business to doing the brunt of the administrative duties. They are required to be great multi-taskers out of necessity. I have found that most business owners struggle to delegate many of the tasks needing to be done, even when they have access to the resources to do so. The upside of that, by their logic, is that they know it is getting done the way they want it done. That doesn’t always mean it is getting done correctly, just that they know it is getting done.

There is a downside to this as well. If as a business owner is spending too much time on the back office work and not on the core business activities (those that run, operate, and grow the business), it is probably time to ask the question - do you need to hire business consulting services? This is not limited to just smaller companies. It applies to businesses and organizations of all sizes.

The challenge for a business owner is to recognize when they should consider hiring a consultant, understand what the role of a business consultant in their business is, and to determine when it is cost-effective to hire one.

What does a business consultant do?

A business consultant is basically an outside expert you hire to solve an internal business problem. A consultant brings knowledge, skills, experience, and expertise to improve their client’s condition. Unlike in-house employees, consultants are hired on a contract/project basis.

Business consultants are there to help you achieve your business goals. A consultant can help you with determining a business strategy, the associated planning, and operational process development and/or improvements required to achieve those goals. They can help with setting a marketing and sales strategy. A business consultant can help with business expansion and other improvements. And while the list is consulting services is virtually limitless, a business consultant can also help implement and execute their ideas and recommendations.

Why hire business consultant?

Most business owners hire consultants as an economical way to bridge a gap in knowledge and/or skills within their company, or a as a way to bring an objective and professional perspective to the company.

Here are the main reasons for which I have seen most businesses hire consultants:

1. Help finding the problem(s): A consultant has only one focus and can come in observe your business objectively, and determine the root of the problem(s).
2. Help crafting the solution(s): Perhaps you have a goal that you can’t achieve because there is a skills gap or because it is simply not within your company’s core competency. Hiring a consultant can bring those missing skills and, in the end, help achieve the desired outcome.
3. Managing future business growth:  Every business owner wants to succeed for the long term. But where does your future growth come from? How do you get there? Hiring a business consultant can get you pointed in the right direction.
4. Improving operational processes: Let’s say your company has grown very rapidly and there are lots of things you know could be done better. Maybe you don’t know where to start, or don’t have the resources to start. A consultant can bring in some fresh perspective, evaluate any or all areas of your business, and determine the processes and procedures to increase operational efficiency.
5. Your strategies aren’t working:  When things don’t seem to work out most people will either go for quick, often wrong solutions, or they go ask for help. Businesses are no different. They can either keep going down the road they’re on and continue to lose revenue and market share, maybe go bankrupt, or they can hire a business consultant who can be a game changer that can analyze the strategies and make changes that benefit your company.
6. You need a certain expertise:  A business consultant is an expert in business strategies. They possess the expertise that your business may not have in order to identify problems, find solutions, create new strategies, and they can even implement those solutions or the necessary changes to your overall business structure.
7. You’re short on expert staff:  Companies that are short on expert employees hire business consultants who can do both jobs – be an employee and be an adviser to the company. Hiring a business consultant is usually less expensive and more cost-effective because consultants don’t require benefits or withholding.
8. You’ve lost focus:  It’s not unusual for business owners lose their focus whenever an unforeseen situation arises. This is where you need a business consultant that can adjust your focus towards your goals and objectives and help you make the right decisions.
9. Help save you time and money:  If you’re still doing too many of the non-core business activities a consultant can take over some those tasks and save you money. They are there to deliver their service and help you run your business more efficiently, effectively, and profitably. A consultant can also provide insight that can enable you to seize new opportunities while avoiding spending time and money on activities that could derail your success.

While those are the most common reasons I have seen, the list above is my no means all inclusive. There are many ways for you to work with consultants throughout your business lifecycle. Perhaps most importantly, business consultants can be cost-effective resources that can give you the valuable time needed to focus on what you do best: developing and growing your business, and being an expert at whatever it is that led you to start your own company.

The Cobalt Group can help you with this. Ask us how.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

People as a Primary Growth Area

In the course of my week I talk with a lot of businesses at various stages and sizes about where they want to grow. It’s not unusual to hear things like:

• I want to grow into a new market.
• I want to increase my offerings.
• I want to add a new location.

The list goes on, and every one of them are good goals and good growth areas. Most of these business leaders have a good strategy to reach those goals, too. But as I talk with them about those strategies there is one common denominator that I don’t hear them talk about growing – their people!

So I want you to change your approach to business growth and think of your People as a Primary Growth Area! While this is true for all of your people, it is especially true for your leadership team. After all, if you’ve read my blog on the 3 Ds of GoodLeadership, then you know that these are the people to whom you will entrust to one of the Ds – Delegate.

Your people are the most important asset you have in your business. Even if you are self-employed, taking care of yourself will benefit your business.

It’s the people that take your vision and direction and help you achieve your goals. They are the ones that make things happen. You have those people because your business grew enough that you could not do it all yourself.

Don’t overlook your Primary Growth Area. Invest in your people. Make sure they know what to do, and have the tools and training to do it. Sure, better benefits help when they are affordable but what I am saying is to make sure they understand what the mission and vision are, and what their role in it is. Seek their input into your plans and they’ll feel like they have ownership, and with that they will want to succeed even more. And when you’ve achieved results in that Growth Area, you’ll be better positioned to grow your business in other areas, and be able to do so with your people as part of that strategy.

The Cobalt Group can help you with this. Ask us how.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.